“On TV & Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video.
Today’s column is by Troy Bubley, co-founder and president of diDNA.
Programmatic advertising can be notoriously complex. There are thousands of solutions on the supply side alone that allow publishers to run ads on their sites and collect revenue from those ads.
But in the streaming category in particular, there is ample opportunity to improve transparency, revenue and user experience. Namely, supply-path optimization and better data technology are two key ways to transform programmatic streaming.
Optimizing connectivity
Supply-path optimization (SPO) offers many benefits to publishers. Already, 87% of brands, agencies and DSPs are actively implementing SPO.
With SPO algorithms, advertisers bid on the ad inventory that’s relevant to them. This can improve the fill rate and increase trust between players throughout the ecosystem, reducing the risk of ad fraud and ad revenue losses.
Most publishers work with multiple exchange partners simultaneously, creating an additional layer of complexity in the supply chain. SPO can simplify things by cutting out unnecessary intermediaries, thereby reducing redundancies. Evaluating each partner to increase optimization of intermediaries can be beneficial to the overall improvement of the user experience, ad performance and yield.
Improving the flow of data
A big challenge for streaming right now is that there is no unified SDK that everyone uses globally. One example is that most streamers don’t know how to implement ad podding correctly. An “ad pod” can be one ad or multiple ads during a commercial break in a stream. It sounds simple, yet ad podding requires significant technical knowledge to implement.
Outside of tech issues, SSPs just don’t have much demand that’s CTV-specific and facilitates data flow effectively. The reason? A lack of communication between the CTV app and the SSP/DSP. Streamers will need to find better ways to connect to those sources.
Improving the user experience and, ultimately, revenue
In the streaming category, there are a few persistent issues when it comes to the user experience, including ad frequency and delivering ads to relevant content.
Technology limitations and a lack of connectivity are partly to blame, but there are also limited user ID solutions to enable ad customization.
Some tech vendors are building tools and code for CTV, which will enhance the ad request being made. But right now, targeting data is sometimes limited to the info provided when a user creates an account.
The streaming space is fairly nascent. Still, it holds many promises for publishers. It comes down to technology, having access to the right data and aligning technology and data to create an optimal user experience that delivers relevant ads in a noninvasive manner. Once fully realized, the ad-supported streaming category will soar.
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